Death Penny

harasha · August 6, 2010 4:32AM

I've wanted one of these for a while, but someone would always beat me to it. Finally -

JCMhouston · August 6, 2010 5:48AM

That is very attractive, I like it a lot.

Hussulo · August 6, 2010 5:50AM

Congratulations. They have a lovely design and large too. I've often wondered why family members sell them on though.

harasha · August 6, 2010 8:13AM

I've often wondered why family members sell them on though.

1. Perhaps a feeling that they do not want to be reminded of a tragic death. I've known people who threw away (literally) flags that had draped a veteran's coffin.
2. There were no heirs.
3. I can tell you, from personal experience in my own family, that family members just can't give a darn about what someone did in a past generation.

Hussulo · August 6, 2010 9:16AM

I can tell you, from personal experience in my own family, that family members just can't give a darn about what someone did in a past generation.

That was my initial thought. Pretty sad really but at least they after going to collectors that appreciate them and their names will live on.

coinkat · August 6, 2010 10:32AM

I know a William Burns

SaorAlba · August 6, 2010 11:50AM

<< <i> I can tell you, from personal experience in my own family, that family members just can't give a darn about what someone did in a past generation. >>

A lot of people are like that, curiously though my family has been the opposite. Oral tradition came down in the family about an ancestor that died during the American Revolution. When I started doing genealogy as a hobby I confirmed the story and was able to fill in some lost details as it had been recounted in official reports from officers during the battle. Similarly my grandfather's cousin was killed during the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944 and my older relatives still remember him. What was most touching for me is one of my other cousins was 12 when his older brother died, and had just received a letter from his brother when they got the telegram that he had died. A few years ago I got to hold and read that letter - not easy to keep a dry eye know that two days after he wrote and sent it that he would die in battle. He died a long time before I was born, but I think about him when I think of WWII.

I own one of these "Death" Pennies myself, I bought it in a British auction sometime back. In common with other posters, I cannot in my wildest imaginations think of how someone could let this item leave the family. But then I have read accounts of these medals being discarded by family members in their grief, also of these medals being found by detectorists in Britain. My medal was inscribed to John Horridge, a soldier who fell at Gallipolli in 1915.

zeebob · August 8, 2010 5:13PM

Gallipoli? My goodness, there's a name that carries some serious weight. What FUBAR situation that was. If I understand correctly, that single campaign cemented the fraternalistic ties between the ANZAC nations (Aussies and Kiwis). The men that served there were some stout fellows. 130,784 souls perished (total including both sides) in something less than nine months. That's a lot of men given the size of the populations participating in the chaos.

A death penny from one of those men is quite a piece of history.

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Death Penny

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